Essay on Arts of the Contact Zone, Mary Louise Pratt

Jacob Neusner’s commencement speech points the finger not only at the graduating students but mainly at the faculty members. He sways towards how easy-going, laid back, and forgiving the professors and other faculty members were towards their students. In that sense, Neusner clearly states that these students aren’t prepared for what’s about to come because they have always had someone hold their hand every step of the way and shown forgiveness in this fantasy called “college.” College is supposed to help you get your feet wet and aid students with preparation for the harsh so called real world. Many thoughts ran through my brain while reading this speech as did my emotions which were up and down like a rollercoaster. As much as I agree with Jacob Neusner on the fact that college and the “real world” are

The boundaries of campus are marked by Northeastern banners on buildings along the perimeters, tall, eye-catching dorms, and diverse populations. The modern buildings labeled with red and white Northeastern signs along with thousands of students from a variety of backgrounds and countries are clear boundaries of where the Northeastern campus begins and where the surrounding neighborhoods end. Northeastern University has created a vibrant community of students that partake in research, community service and coops both at home and abroad that greatly differs from the neighboring communities at schools like Boston University, Wentworth Institute of Technology and Berklee College of Music. Northeastern is not just bordered by other institutes, it is also bordered by local communities and neighborhoods in Back Bay, Roxbury, and Fenway. These local communities may be physical borders, but they are just as engaged with the Northeastern campus as the students are. Locals reside in apartments and eat at restaurants located on campus and, likewise, Northeastern students engage in service learning and community service off

After talking to students in classroom who were assigned to do a project on Pratt, getting a frequent response “I didn’t read it, it’s too hard to comprehend” was an ordinary thing. Therefore, writing a response to Pratt’s essay in a language that is comprehendible by regular people can be very helpful to those struggling students. In "Arts of the Contact Zone" Pratt discusses the mix of two different cultures in one area. Where one person is born and lives in a "contact zone" he/she is surrounded by two different conflicting cultures, and there are two different languages. She also introduces us with a new word "autoethnography", which means the way in which subordinate peoples present themselves in ways that their

Human’s also crave interaction from other human beings. We enjoy sharing experiences with others, as much as we enjoy the remoteness of a walk alone in the woods. When these things are combined, sometimes we learn the most, and have the most enriched experiences. The human interaction we crave, can not be found in nature.

     The Arts of the Contact Zone by Mary Louise Pratt opened up a whole new concept for our class. The new term “contact zone” appeared and Pratt defined it as "social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today." The idea of the contact zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of community that trigger much of the thinking about language, communication, and culture.

Mary Louise Pratt wrote the essay “Arts of the Contact Zone” with the purpose of explaining that society would benefit if people were exposed to and understood the concept of “contact zones”. She refers to contact zones as social spaces where cultures meet and clash with each other, usually with one culture being dominant over the other. A person living in a contact zone is exposed to two different cultures, two different languages, and as a result is presented with a struggle in each culture to maintain themselves. From being surrounded by several different cultures, people begin to integrate the concept of transculturation—a process in which subordinate cultures evolve by taking things from dominant, more advanced cultures, and make it

A community has similar things. They can live in the same place, have similar characteristics, or share the same interests and goals. They are not exactly the same, but they have similarities. A contact zone is not like that. A contact zone could be a classroom that has people from all different cultures. They are trying to learn together and work together by putting together their different thoughts and ideas.

Throughout “Arts of the Contact Zone”, Pratt uses many real life situations to exemplify how contact zones create conflict and separate people and cultures; but she also examines ways to use the contact zone to our advantage in order to unify society. Sometimes people are led believe their differences are too great to overcome, so they remain isolated from the rest of society. People shouldn’t be trying to isolate themselves, but rather incorporating their culture into the community around them. This incorporation of cultures can often cause conflict, but Pratt explains that conflict can be avoided if people abandon their biases and pursue knowledge about the cultures around them. This idea “will read very differently” to people on opposing sides of the contact zone

College is an extremely terrifying experience, especially when someone doesn’t know how to maneuver around or choosing the right course or class. Furthermore, it was a great privilege to receive that first letter from The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS)., Knowing that I’ve been accepted into an honor society that chose someone like myself out of several other qualified students on my campus. That letter gave hope and inspiration for someone like myself the strength to overcome any obstacles, in addition, to being welcomed into this tremendous family that reaches far and wide to help students like myself to accomplish our goals and dream, especially being in the first generation to attend college especially an older adult continuing my

I have had considerable experience in understanding diverse groups of people thanks to my alma mater, Penn Charter. Located in the heart of Philadelphia, my high school was truly inclusive to all types of people. The administration took pride in their ability to cultivate diversity and attract students from nearly all corners of Philadelphia. In the process, the school has realized success in creating a community of students that hail from various different racial, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds.

Coming from a small high school and later a small college, I know now more than ever that James Madison University is the school for me. When I received a letter in the mail offering me not only an acceptance letter, but also an abundant scholarship from Elizabethtown College, a small private school, I felt I would be foolish not to accept this generous award. While I have had great experiences and have learned an abundance of knowledge in and outside the classroom during my first semester of college, I now know that to reach my full potential, it’s time to move on to a larger, more diverse campus like JMU. For me, Elizabethtown College was comfortable and reminded me of my hometown. Now I know that to be more successful, I need to step

As part of daily life, we communicate and connect ourselves with certain communities. School, jobs, families, sports, extracurricular activities, and many other communities are just a few we come into contact with. Although these may seem to appear the same, there are specific types of communities such as a discourse community. A discourse community is a group of people involved in and communicating about a particular topic, issue, or in a particular field (Webcourses, N.d, Website) that has a share a common set of goals and attempt to achieve these goals (Swales, 1990). According to researcher and educator, John Swales, there are six characteristics that define whether or not a community is considered a discourse community. Following the criteria Swales states is necessary to be a discourse community, I did an in depth research on the American Sign Language community. Through my study, I was able to meet all six characteristics.

connecting with others. Anything worth having is not easy to obtain, and for some people,

The “Arts of the Contact Zone”, an article written by Stanford professor Mary Louise Pratt, discusses many different ideas about culture and communication by utilizing what she calls the literate arts. Pratt explains many terms that she believes are beneficial in gaining a further understanding of a literary piece. Key terms such as, contact zone, autoethnography and transculturation are introduced in her essay. She describes contact zones as “social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power”(Pratt 487). The contact zone can be summarized as a space where two groups with different beliefs or ideas intermingle. In the essay, Pratt also describes the literate arts that come out of the contact zone. Literary arts are ways of addressing problems in the contact zone and sometimes make an attempt to resolve the issue that is happening or has happened. Two terms heavily discussed in the essay are autoethnography and transculturation. These are only two of the many literate arts that precipitate out of the contact zone. Pratt defines autoethnography as a “text in which people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with representations others have made of them”(Pratt 487). The culture often takes on those stereotypes in some form of literary work and presents it to the dominant culture often trying to change their views or perspectives. Autoethnography is often used as an effective method

Communities are affected, and in a sense defined by, forces that affect community members and their space. The forces can range from outside organizations such as the government and large corporations … These components of the community vary infinitely, and thus no two communities are the same; even a given community is not the same over time (Cnaan & Milofsky, p. 1)